Syria
The Syrian conflict which began in 2010 is not over. Lines of control have become more stable, but violence continued causing fear, deaths, and displacement. Some 14.6 million people inside Syria rely upon Humanitarian assistance for the provision of basic goods and services essential for living such as food, clean water, education, and shelter. More than 6.9 million people are internally displaced and inside Syria, 1.8 million people are still living in camps and informal settlements with life ‘on hold’.
Last year alone, we assisted 1,585,889 vulnerable people in Syria.
The land bears the scars of conflict. Economic productivity is down 50% since 2010 levels, and one in ten buildings are damaged or destroyed. Food supply is hampered by the destruction or looting of infrastructure, contamination with unexploded ordinance, lack of access to credit, and environmental degradation.
The country is experiencing a deep economic crisis. Over 90% of the population lives below the poverty line. Economic investment is severely limited due to continued insecurity and a lack of a political settlement. An estimated 2.4 million children are out of school and another 1.6 million children are at risk of dropping out.
For the 6.9 million displaced within Syria, returning ‘home‘ is not yet an option due to widespread unexploded ordinance contamination, poor service provision in areas of return (including healthcare), and complications around documentation and legal status.
How is PIN responding?
People in Need was one of the first international humanitarian organizations to respond to the crisis in Syria, starting operations there in 2012. In 2021, PIN assistance reached more than 1.5 million individuals across an annual program portfolio of over 53 million USD.
In Syria, we respond to emergency needs and support education and child protection. We distribute life-saving food assistance to those most in need and provide emergency hygiene kits and winterization assistance to displaced families.
We provide shelter and protection for vulnerable people, and, at the same time, we conduct public and private shelter rehabilitation. We support agriculture and the restoration of additional sources of livelihoods, including public work opportunities, through livelihood grants and training, and through cash for work.
We repair public water wells and networks, rehabilitate, and extend sewage systems, and build landfills. Furthermore, we help education in schools and in temporary learning centers by supporting local teachers, students, and their parents; we strive to improve the quality of lessons; and we ensure psychosocial support to help conflict-affected children and their families build their resilience, including in child-friendly spaces in camps for displaced people.
PIN’s livelihood and agriculture programs in Syria provide opportunities for conflict-affected communities to start, resume, or expand their livelihoods, contributing to the country’s economic recovery and strengthening of local markets after over a decade of decline due to insecurity and conflict.
We are also responding to COVID-19 through programming in sectors in which we have the most experience, with distance learning, treatment rooms, and hygiene kits among others.
PIN seeks to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in emergencies, as well as to provide long-term, sustainable assistance and help the local community to be able to cope with the effects of the conflict on their own.
